And only just in time, for before we had got it well up the rain began to come down, and continued to rattle on our canvas roof for the rest of the night.
But the storm had come with so little warning, and the wind had come before the rain, so we comforted ourselves with the Scouts' weather mottoes:—
"Long foretold, long last;
Short notice, soon past."
And
"When the wind's before the rain,
Soon you may make sail again;
When the rain's before the wind,
Then your sheets and halyards mind."
Sure enough, next morning the sky cleared, and a beautiful sunny day enabled us to carry out our next march in comfort.
* * * * *
ARABS' CANDLES.
Our next camp was a delightful one—in place of the open, dry, stormy desert, we found ourselves in groves of young palm trees on the river bank, with plenty of fresh water and plenty of firewood. So we were in luxury, and stayed two days in this spot to enjoy it to the full.
We had the additional fun here of catching fish in the river with a hook and line attached to a stick cut from an oleander bush. We found some worms in the irrigated garden, and thus we were able to fish and to catch a good number of barbel.